The Artemis II crew, four astronauts aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft, spoke with ABC News a day after launching on a historic 10-day lunar flyby. The mission lifted off Wednesday evening from Kennedy Space Center, sending Reid Wiseman (commander), Victor Glover (pilot), Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen (mission specialist) on a roughly 685,000-mile trip around the moon and back — the first human mission beyond low-Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.
In the interview with Gio Benitez, Wiseman described a striking view of Earth from orbit, saying the crew could see the globe from pole to pole and easily pick out continents such as Africa and Europe. They even spotted the northern lights, a sight that stopped the team in their tracks.
The launch, which took place at 6:35 p.m. ET, was visible around the world. Hansen said that despite expecting the event, the moment the boosters ignited and the vehicle left the pad produced a brief sense of disbelief and left him grinning.
Koch, who holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 328 days, addressed a minor issue observed during checks of Orion’s Universal Waste Management System. A blinking fault light appeared during tests but was resolved before it became a problem. Koch joked about being the ‘space plumber’ and stressed the importance of a working toilet on long missions, adding that the team breathed a collective sigh of relief once the system cleared.
Glover reflected on how the planet looks from high orbit, emphasizing a sense of unity. He noted that Earth appears as one shared home and said lunar missions have a way of bringing people together and highlighting what can be achieved when differences are combined rather than divided.
Before the ABC interview, the crew completed a critical milestone: the translunar injection burn that put Orion on its path toward the moon. Acting NASA Associate Administrator Lori Glaze called the burn flawless and noted that orbital mechanics will now carry the spacecraft to the far side of the moon and back to Earth.